


Your Name Is Max Adler

by bismoran



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Captain America: The Winter Soldier Spoilers, Gen, Hydra, expanding on a minor character, the guy at S.H.I.E.L.D. who says no to crossbones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:20:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1438060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bismoran/pseuds/bismoran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remember the man who refused to follow Crossbones' orders, despite having a gun held to his head? He stole the whole movie for me. So I decided to write a drabble about him. And give him a name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Name Is Max Adler

**Author's Note:**

> Vilna is a city that has changed hands many times. Shortly before the Soviets took it over, it was given to Lithuania, but before that it was Poland. It's called Poland because that's what the book I am using for reference chose to call it.

Your name is Max Adler. You were born November 22nd 1983. You were born two weeks before your due date. You have a twin sister named Rachel, and an older brother named David. She’s named after your great grandmother. He’s named after David Bowie. You’re named after an old friend of your family, Max Eisenhardt.

When you were a child, your mother used to tell you your great grandmother on you father’s side was Irene Adler, and that she was so proud of her surname, she made her husband take it instead of the other way around. Later, you found out, Irene Adler wasn’t a real person, she was just a character in a book. And you felt, honestly, a little betrayed.

Your Mémé, an old woman, born in France, moved to the US in 1935, used to tell you stories about Captain America growing up. She grew up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan then. Around the same time he was living there.

She insisted he lived in her neighborhood. All the history books say he was from Brooklyn, but your grandmother insisted the history books were wrong. She died before you had the time to question her state of mind.

Your grandparents on the other side were dead. Lung cancer for one, a broken heart for the other.They survived the war in Russia. Their town in Poland, Vilna, was taken over by the Soviets, before the Nazis had a chance to get them.

They were shipped off to Siberia.

The rest of your family wasn’t so lucky.

You’d ask your mother as a child to tell you stories about them, about what happened to them, and she’d tell you the outline, but, after that, she always told you she didn’t listen to their stories as a girl. That she regretted it.

You listened to everyone’s stories. Every old relative, everyone old at Shul, everyone’s stories you could hear. And all the stories you heard made you want to join S.H.I.E.L.D.

You know S.H.I.E.L.D’s story too. It was started by Margaret Carter, after the war. To keep the world safe. And, until this very moment, you were sure it did a good job.

But when you hear Steve Rogers’ voice over the speakers, everything just…clicks.

And you know where you stand. That you stand with Cap.

And you know what to say to the man when he gives you those orders. You’re not gonna follow a Nazi’s orders. And that’s all Hydra is. Nazis.

The pistol on your neck makes you shiver, and you’re terrified, but you stay strong. Then, you hear 13 draw her gun, and it helps.

Hydra’s man drops his weapon.

No matter what happens from this point forward, you’re proud of your actions. If you survive this, you can tell your children and grandchildren this story. And hopefully, at least one of them will listen.


End file.
